Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance will travel to Greenland on Friday as President Donald Trump continues to talk about the U.S. taking control of the island.
The Vances will visit the Pituffik Space Base, receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with U.S. service members.
The Vances’ visit comes as President Donald Trump continues to emphasize Greenland’s importance for U.S. national security as China and Russia ramp up activity in the Arctic.
Ahead of the Vance’s trip, Trump discussed how he views Greenland as vital to U.S. national security.
Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance arrive in Paris, Feb. 11, 2025.
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“We need Greenland for national security and international security. So we’ll, I think, we’ll go as far as we have to go,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And, you know, we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security,” Trump said.
The president made overtures about buying Greenland in his first term in office.
In a press release announcing the visit, Vance said, “In the decades since neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and past US administrations have presented our adversaries with the opportunity to advance their own priorities in Greenland and the Arctic. President Trump is rightly changing course.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who is also making the trip, told Fox News on Thursday that Greenland has tried for years to interest U.S. mining companies to develop resources there because there’s not enough infrastructure to make mining economical.
“So, heck, maybe that is going to happen,” he said. “I think that is in the best interest of Greenland and Greenlanders and they have expressed that for years. If the United States can have the right cooperation, I think capital can flow there which would bring jobs and economic opportunity to Greenland and critical minerals and resources to the United States — a win for both sides.”
The idea of Greenland becoming part of the U.S. is opposed by many in Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory.
Usha Vance was originally scheduled to make the trip to learn about Greenland’s cultural heritage and attend a national dogsled race before it was announced that the vice president, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would join her. The trip was later scaled back to just a visit to the space base. The White House confirmed Thursday that Waltz will make the trip.
JD Vance and Waltz are at the center of the scandal over the purported conversation discussing the attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen over the commercially available Signal app that inadvertently included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who reported details of the conversation on Monday.
Officials in Greenland and Denmark have pushed backagainst the visit.
The sun rises over the mountain tops, Mar. 27, 2025 in Nuuk, Greenland.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Reuters reported that Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen called Trump’s statements an “escalation” in Trump’s rhetoric.
“These very powerful statements about a close ally do not suit the U.S. president,” Poulsen told reporters in Copenhagen on Thursday. “I need to clearly speak out against what I see as an escalation from the American side,” he said.
On Wednesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a post on social media the U.S. is putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland and Denmark ahead of the unsolicited visit, adding that the two regions will “resist.”
The timing of the visit was criticized in both Greenland and Denmark as Greenland tries to put together a coalition government after parliamentary elections two weeks ago.
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
